The Current Epidemic of Pride and Our Critical Need for Humility

Photo by Pearl

It's hard to write an article on humility. You can’t begin by saying, as one of my friends in college used to quip, “I’m the most humble person I know. So let me tell you how to be humble.” And yet, despite the inherent dangers, this is a topic that needs more attention. We have a crisis of humility in American Christianity.

If there is one area that illuminates the ways we have been too formed by culture it might be in the areas of pride and humility. It doesn’t matter where you look, the issue surfaces all around us. Pride is pervasive in our political arena. And I don’t mean only that politicians are hopelessly self-promoting. That has always been the case. But it seems that braggadocious confidence is now esteemed as the mark of good leadership. This is also readily apparent in the world of sports and entertainment. We are quick to applaud those who exude self-righteous confidence. The appeal of “strong leadership,” which often would better be labeled boastful and belittling leadership, seems to have spilled into the Christian celebrity scene as well. Keyboard warriors fill the social media platforms arguing on behalf of Christ without any hint of grace or gentleness. Kindness in Christians is sometimes mocked as weakness, despite the fact that kindness is explicitly listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit that Christians are expected to exhibit.

Perhaps I should not be surprised given the cultural realities of our time. After the post-modern push toward uncertainty, the resulting pendulum swing seems to be black-and-white rigidity. Everything is pushed to the poles. There is little middle ground, and nuance seems nearly non-existent. To even admit you don't know something is seen as losing. In our world, it seems there are only two types of people: lock-step allies and enemies. No other categories exist. And this reality cuts across the political and theological spectrums. Pride–often thinly veiled as passionate certainty about one's beliefs–is viewed as an esteemed feature of leadership now, not a deadly sin to combat.

Social media has certainly played a role in exacerbating this problem. In our carefully curated online worlds we are always the center of our own universe. Instagram, Facebook, X, and the like are all designed to make our opinions and content the center of attention. There was a day when we could accomplish something in our lives and only those closest to you with real relationships would know. Now if we don’t post a picture and brag to our thousand closest friends, did it even happen?

Here’s the problem: Humility is not just a nice idea in the Christian life. It’s not something you hope to grow in but can do without as long as you worship Jesus. Humility is central to the Gospel message and a prerequisite for those who want to follow in the way of Christ. Without humility there is no gospel.

I’ve gone on now without really saying what humility is. We often get this definition wrong. It is not belittling one’s self. It is not thinking of yourself as worthless. It is rather a way of understanding the proper perspective of who we are in comparison to who God is. I particularly like the definition Andrew Murray uses. He writes, “...humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as man and yielding to God His place.”

The incarnation is humility made flesh:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8, NASB)

It is difficult to grasp the profundity of God lowering himself to the level of his own creation. Jesus, the very Son of God, is the height of humility. And not only did he take on flesh, he allowed himself to be killed at the hands of those he spoke into existence. Andrew Murray, in his brilliant classic on humility, states simply, “Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature” (Andrew Murray, Humility, 1884).

Human beings have struggled with pride since the very beginning. It was pride lurking behind the words of the serpent’s temptation to Adam and Eve. “For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The sad reality is that they were already like God. They had been created in his own image. They were walking and talking freely with their creator. They had been given unique creative partnership in the garden. And yet this thought weasels its way into their minds. “Maybe God is holding out on us. Maybe it’s not enough to just be with God, but maybe we could be God.” Humans have been infected by the virus of pride ever since. We always think we know best. We think we can save ourselves. Fundamentally, we think we can be our own gods.

To be free of this virus is to walk in humility. And it was precisely that medicine that Jesus brought in its purest form. To undo the curse of sin from the first Adam, set loose by pride, the second and better Adam, Jesus the Christ, unleashed redemption and healing through history’s greatest act of humility on the cross. It was only his perfect humility that could unwind the snare of the sin that started with pride in the garden.

And so humility is no small deal. It stands at the heart of the gospel. It also is the pathway to salvation. Not only does it make the gospel possible, it is the only path that allows us to respond. When Jesus announces his public ministry in Mark’s gospel he says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Repentance is required to respond to the gospel. And repentance is impossible without humility.

We simply cannot respond to God’s invitation of salvation without first receiving the grace of humility. To repent is to admit we have been wrong and that we cannot fix ourselves. It’s acknowledging that the path of our own making was a path that leads to hell. Humility is the first step in acknowledging our own weakness and need for salvation.

Murray writes, “Humility is the only soil in which grace takes root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone assumes the right attitude before God and allows Him as God to do all.”

This is why the recovery of humility as a central Christian virtue is paramount for our time. It is impossible to walk in the way of Jesus without it. His invitation is, after all, first an invitation to pick up a cross daily. He invites us to die with him before we might rise with him. “The truth is this: pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you” (Murray).

From start to finish, the Christian life is a pathway to greater humility. It would be hard to think of a theme that is more pervasive in Jesus’ teaching. “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4).

But humility is not merely at the center of how we relate to God. Jesus’ teaching and all of the New Testament point to the way in which humility affects how we relate to others. A proper view of ourselves in relation to God always translates into a humble love for others whom God has also created in his own image. Paul instructs believers clearly: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3, NASB) Jesus washed the disciples' feet and then instructed them to go and do likewise. Or think of Paul’s teaching on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of this fruit impacts our relationships with other people and all of this fruit flows out of humility. Only those thinking of others more and thinking of themselves less can truly live lives filled with love, kindness, goodness, and the like. Pride destroys this fruit.

How we go about our lives as Christians matters. What we esteem as good leadership matters. All of it is an act of worship and a witness to the world. Any form of Christian practice that ignores prideful behavior, or even worse, celebrates it, undermines the gospel and the pathway to salvation. When we celebrate leaders as Christians who walk in arrogance, we are celebrating sin. Describing a pastor as arrogant should sound as scandalous to our ears as one who is adulterous. Interestingly enough, those two sins often go together. Christians have been rightly alarmed in our contemporary society when sin of all stripes has been celebrated. I wish we would be equally as alarmed by the root of all sin, pride, when it surfaces within the body of Christ.

If we are going to nurture greater humility it will take practice and persistence. It is hard to unlearn arrogant tendencies when we’ve been swimming in this water for so long. Practically this means intentionally rooting out anything in ourselves that is boastful and self-centered. I highly recommend Andrew Murray’s book Humility as a devotional place to get started. For some, the nurturing of humility may mean intentionally seeking a life of obscurity rather than chasing a platform. For pastors, it may mean doing things you would rather not do or feel beneath you. Make a point to stack chairs every week after worship no matter the size of your church. Take a turn in the nursery when you have a free Sunday with no announcement or fanfare. For all Christians, maybe this means choosing differently who we follow online or allow to speak into our lives. It likely means changing the way we engage in our personal social media. It also might mean a willingness to truly listen in love to those with whom we disagree, finding common ground, and desiring their best, rather than simply finding a way to excoriate them. Sometimes it starts by saying the powerful words, “I don’t know,” or honestly acknowledging our weakness as we trust in Christ’s strength. There are all sorts of ways we can take practical action to nurture humility. One place you can start is by simply asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate any pride in you and to guide you toward greater humility this week. I am confident that is one prayer that will always be answered.

In this time of shaking and scandal within the church, it is past time for us to right-size our egos and allow the meekness of Christ to be our guide. It is time to repent, pick up our servant’s towel, and meet Jesus at the cross. We are in the midst of an epidemic of pride, but we will never defeat this virus by taking on the ways of the world. Our only hope as Christians is getting lower, serving others, and walking the cruciform-shaped life of our savior.

Matt Reynolds is the founder and president of Spirit & Truth, a church-equipping, resourcing, and missions ministry based out of Dayton, Ohio. Firebrand is a ministry of Spirit & Truth.